The recent focus on the one percent a group that has come to be associated with wealth and power obscures where the real source of capital and power lies today. Seventy seven per cent of discretionary spending – the engine that drives the American economy - comes from just 46 percent of the population. This largely undetected group is responsible for those parts of the American economy that are thriving despite the toughest conditions in living memory. We call them NEOs short for the New Economic Order as their spending adds up to an economy within an economy wherever they are.

So far they have remained undetected by businesses and government. If you’re in business you need to know who they are and what they really value. But more importantly their discovery points to blueprint for building a sustainable economic engine capable of powering America out of its current crisis and through the next century. The NEO Economy exists but its potential has barely been tapped.

Ross Honeywill is an internationally published author social scientist and recognized authority on the impact of a rapidly changing social fabric through his leadership role as a director at KPMG (Asia Pacific) between 1997 and 2001. Ross developed the algorithm that revealed the existence of NEOs and the NEO Economy.